Arsenal Survive a Drone Attack at Highbury, Then Get Shot Down Anyway by a Fishing Town That Never Practised Penalties

Twenty years after moving out of Highbury, Arsenal finally went back to Highbury on Tuesday night. Unfortunately it was the wrong Highbury, and the wrong Highbury did not care.

The Premier League champions were knocked out of the Carabao Cup on penalties by Fleetwood Town, a League Two side from a Lancashire fishing town, two points above the relegation zone and 84 places below Arsenal in the football pyramid. It finished 1-1, then 5-3 on penalties. Arsenal are the Gunners. Fleetwood are the Cod Army. On Tuesday, the fish had better aim.

The evening began with flames and fireworks and then, 93 seconds in, an actual aircraft. Referee Michael Salisbury spotted a drone over the pitch and stopped play for roughly eight minutes, while 5,002 fans booed the sky, which has never once responded to booing. Police located the operator. The drone came down in a local housing estate, giving it a better finishing record than Kai Havertz.

The FA's guidance says that in such cases "play will not continue until the drone has passed, or left the vicinity of the players and spectators." Arsenal's forwards spent the next 80 minutes applying the same protocol to the goal: approach, hover, leave the vicinity.

Fleetwood scored in the 21st minute when Aaron Loupalo-Bi outmuscled 17-year-old Marli Salmon, a sentence no parent should hear before bedtime. Viktor Gyokeres equalised after the break with his first goal of the season, which arrived in late October like a parcel from a courier who swears he knocked. After that, Arsenal managed one goal from 26 shots and 59 touches inside the Fleetwood box. At 59 touches, you are no longer attacking the box. You are subletting it.

Then Max Dowman, 16, was sent off for kicking out at Harrison Neal and met Mikel Arteta's fury in the tunnel. He is too young to buy a lottery ticket in Britain, and he still had a better night than anyone who backed Arsenal.

For the shootout, Arteta trusted Illan Meslier, making his Arsenal debut, over penalty expert Kepa Arrizabalaga. Picking the debutant over the specialist for a shootout is like sending the intern to a hostage negotiation because he needs the reps. Meslier got close to none of Fleetwood's kicks. Jay Lynch saved Bruno Guimaraes' effort, and Conor Haughey, a 19-year-old centre-back, smashed the winner into the top corner like a man with a bus to catch.

Fleetwood manager Matt Lawlor then revealed the secret behind five perfect penalties: "I'm going to be honest, we haven't practised once." Arsenal have analysts, set-piece coaches and data on which way a goalkeeper's eyebrows lean. Fleetwood had honesty. Honesty went five for five.

Lawlor wept, fans flooded the pitch, players swore in their interviews, and then the manager remembered the fixture list: "I didn't want to be the bearer of reality, but we've got a game." Nothing says Lancashire like beating the champions and immediately worrying about Saturday.

Arteta called it "A really sad day for us," adding, "With what we produced, it should have showed in the scoreline." Football has a technical term for that argument. It is called losing.

Arsenal now head to Anfield on Sunday. Police found the drone operator the same night. Arsenal's finishing remains at large, last seen hovering over Highbury, refusing to come down.